4 Big Leaks Confirmed By The Nintendo Switch 2 Reveal

The Nintendo Switch 2 has finally been announced, and fans are still catching up with the exciting reveal. In typical Nintendo fashion, the new console was officially unveiled with a brief trailer that featured zero narration and plenty of whimsical visuals. Also typical of Nintendo: The fact that a number of this console's details have previously been revealed through a series of leaks that the gaming giant has refused to publicly acknowledge.

Granted, gamers know by now to take most leaks and rumors with several grains of salt. Pretty much everybody grew up with a version of that one kid who swore his uncle worked for Nintendo and knew the inside scoop. However, leakers have been quite busy in the last year or so, and the Switch 2 has been a particular target of the rumor mill. Though Nintendo typically doesn't weigh in on gossip, the reveal trailer for the next Nintendo system has seemingly confirmed a few major rumors. Let's a-go!

Who among us hasn't spent a few minutes struggling to get a Joy-Con to slot into the Switch the right way? Thanks to some recent leaks, we've become pretty confident that problem will become a thing of the past when the Switch 2 arrives. The leaks claim that the Switch 2's Joy-Cons will magnetically connect to the system and come with some other upgrades, like a couple of new buttons and metallic casing. Another juicy rumor indicates that the Joy-Cons can be used like a computer mouse.

Nintendo's Switch 2 trailer shows off the new connectors, and they look incredibly slick. The Joy-Cons have a beefier section for triggers that sinks into the casing of the Switch 2 when the controllers are connected. It does look like they slot in with some kind of magnet, especially due to the "click" sound effect that gets played when they connect to the console. Mouse functionality seems to have been hinted at in the new trailer as well, in a oddly adorable shot of the Joy-Cons racing along a flat surface like a couple of "Tron" Lightcycles. 

It's not entirely possible to tell from the trailer whether or not the joy-cons have metal casing, but they do look shinier and sturdier than the Joy-Cons we've come to know over the past decade. All in all, the new controllers look like across-the-board improvements, but we'll have to wait until we've been using them for months to confirm whether or not they've fixed the biggest problem with the original Joy-Cons: stick drift.

A shiny new Nintendo console just wouldn't feel the same without a revamped "Mario Kart" game to go with it, and it looks like the folks at Nintendo agree. Though the majority of the Switch 2's launch library is still being kept tightly under wraps, the reveal trailer did show us that a new "Mario Kart" is in the works — and honestly, it's about time. "Mario Kart 8" came out all the way back in 2014, and although it received an overhauled "Deluxe" edition when the Switch launched in 2017, fans have been waiting over a decade for a full-fledged sequel. Not much is known about the new game — even whether or not it has a "9" in the title — but it appears to have a larger sense of scale when compared to previous entries. There are now 15 players on the track (rather than 12) and some of the characters (Donkey Kong, in particular) look to have gotten a slight redesign. Also, the desert track seen in the trailer appears to be massive.

Rumors of a new "Mario Kart" releasing alongside the Switch 2 have persisted for months among video game insiders, and now gamers know the truth: We're really getting "Mario Kart 9" and a whole new Nintendo console reveal before "GTA 6."

One of the biggest selling points of the original Nintendo Switch is its portability, and that's still the case with the Switch 2. Carrying the new console around isn't going to break your back, but it looks like Nintendo has realized that gamers want to have as big a screen as possible on their devices. The launch trailer for the Switch 2 made it clear that the Switch's successor is going to be a bigger system overall, giving players a significantly larger screen without completely sacrificing the console's portability.

What does that actually mean in terms of specs? Well, unfortunately the trailer didn't get into the specifics for all the hardcore nerds in the audience. That said, recent Switch 2 leaks already told us that the new console would be bigger, and now it seems easier than ever to trust those details that Nintendo never wanted us to see. Last week, leakers indicated that the Switch 2 is going to be even bigger than the OLED model of the Switch. The leaks also claimed that the Switch 2 will have an 8.4 inch screen, which would be a sizable improvement over the OLED's 7.0 inch screen. There's some disagreement about whether or not the 8.4 measure refers to the display screen or the entire glass panel covering the front of the Switch 2 — as other leaks have indicated that the screen will only be a single inch larger — but Nintendo is sure to unveil the official measurements soon.

Nintendo finally confirmed the existence of its next console back in May 2024, when President of Nintendo Shuntaro Furukawa suddenly tweeted that the company would formally announce the Switch's successor before the end of the fiscal year. Since then, the rumor mill has only heated up, with some people fearing that Nintendo might announce a console with a 2026 release window. Over the last few months, however, gaming industry insiders have started predicting that the Switch 2 will be here much sooner than expected.

One of the biggest contributors to these rumors has been Genki, a maker of gaming accessories that allegedly showed off mock-ups of the Nintendo Switch 2 during this year's CES trade show. Genki has reportedly been visited by Nintendo's legal team since then, but not before telling CES attendees to expect the Switch 2 to release in April 2025.

Now that Nintendo has officially revealed that the console will arrive this year — and that a more in-depth Nintendo Direct livestream will air in April — those leaks are beginning to sound even more credible. Is it possible that Nintendo could shadow-drop the Switch 2 at the end of it's next presentation, Beyoncé-style? Only time will tell.